2017-10-26

Maine Secedes from Eastern Time

Negative social mood increases the desire for separation and conflict. In Catalonia and Scotland there are independence votes. In California there is talk of Calexit. In New England, there's a push for local control. Over the time.

Earlier this year, Bailey sponsored a bill that would move Maine to the Atlantic Time Zone, an hour ahead of its current position in the Eastern Time Zone, and no longer observe Daylight Saving Time. The bill passed both chambers of the Maine state legislature. But the Senate added a provision that Maine voters must approve the change in a referendum, and the referendum could only be triggered by neighboring Massachusetts and New Hampshire changing their time, too. Since neither of those states had immediate plans to change their time zones, the move seemed doomed.

But now there is hope. Massachusetts is considering a permanent change in its time zone.

The article headline is misleading since what's effectively being done is permanent Daylight Savings. Maine will leave its clocks ahead one hour and shift to the Atlantic time zone.

In the context of negative social mood, this move does create separation since Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts would be one-hour ahead of the rest of the Atlantic seaboard. Vermont might shift as well. Connecticut would probably stick with Eastern time because it has strong ties to the financial markets centered in New York City.

New England considered secession back in the early 1800s. The Civil War was a replay of this split between New England mills (importers, traders) and Southern farmers (exporters). Regionalism, dormant for many decades, is on the rise again.